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Monday, November 28, 2011

Eve Online is Offline for a few hours as the eagerly awaited Crucible expansion is applied. Years and years of player's "It would be cool if...." fixes and enhancements are being added. New Battlecruisers for all races are being made available. Graphics updates include ships and backgrounds. Supercapitals will no longer be invincible on their own and be able to take on any fleet on without back up. The online community is at fever pitch which might boil over in the next six hours....

I wonder what would be happening all over New Eden if it was real......

***Warning! Geeky Fan Fiction. Please move along if you don't like this sort of thing!***

-oOo-

Scotty looked down at the datapad and then back up at the ship hanger. It was going to be a long day. The ships he had to check were in the furthest corners of the cavernous hanger. The ones that were rarely used.

The mobile hover-platform finally stopped at the top corner of the hanger. Scotty dare not look down. He was at the top of the honeycomb wall where countless ships were stacked neatly in their bays. The light up here near the roof was blinding, but looking up was better than looking down at the 1000m drop to the hanger floor. He hated doing this, but they were understaffed, overworked and since the computer enhancements a month ago for Capsuleers changing ships in station, his personal workload had decreased. Capsuleers were impatient creatures and he had to ensure there was sufficient time between them leaving one ship and boarding the next. There was always a danger that ships could crash and appropriate time was always needed to get the current ship out of the way and the new one in. Thirty seconds was a good time he thought. What was 30 seconds to immortals? However they had complained and now a computerised system handled the moving of ships which was much faster than the "Scotty thirty seconds" he had decree was the minimum. Therefore with less work telling those blasted Capsuleers to hang on a few seconds he was having to help out the overworked hanger crews with other tasks.

He crossed from the hover platform into the storage bay. A Moa class cruiser was sat there. Scotty could see from the dust and debris surrounding it, that this ship that it hadn't been moved in years. He brought out his datapad to check his worksheet.

From: Drackarn (Station Note - Capsuleer - Flag as High Priority)

To: Hanger Bay, State Protectorate Station, Nisuwa

Please ensure that the following ships are thoroughly checked, updated and read to fly ASAP. These ships had been mothballed so require proper attention.

Scotty thought "Mothballed.... he wasn't kidding!". The ship didn't look like it had been moved in years.

He made his way around to the command hatch and keyed in the code. There was a hiss as the door opened. Scotty looked down the gloomy corridor. He stepped up and inside and approached a console by the door. The air was stale as the ship was in hibernation mode, all power was down except for that one console. He keyed in the correct sequence to wake the ship. Nothing happened. Scotty cursed.

This was the fourteenth ship like this he had found today and it was getting boring. Ships designed around hybrid weapons had been out of favour for years. Advances in projectile, laser and missile weaponry had made hybrids a poor cousin. Then last week a Gallente research center came up with a new firing algorithm plus software enhancements for the engines, computer systems and reactors of their hybrid platform ships. The Caldari had made similar "discoveries" two days later. No doubt some Caldari spy had found favour with the State on that day! Suddenly all the Capsuleers wanted their hybrid platform ships shaking down. He'd been going solid for 8 hours. Most were like this one, so neglected they wouldn't even wake on command. He took out his torch and started to walk to the bridge.

The bridge on a Capsuleer craft was generally much smaller than a normal ship. With the Capsuleer commanding most primary and secondary systems there was no need for a large command crew. He approached the primary console and removed a portable power-pack from his toolbox. He sat down and removed an access cover from the console and plugged in the power supply. The console came to life. He stood back up and entered the command codes.

This time the ship sprang to life. Lights flickered on, the consoles around the bridge lit up and he could see out of the viewport that the external lights were active, reflecting against the sides of the dimly lit docking bay. A low hum throughout the ship indicated the reactor was starting up. Scotty established the communication links. A message flashed up on the console.

"There is an update available for this ship. You will not be able to use this ship unless you update. Would you like to update now?"

Scotty shook his head. "14:00? Yeah if you say so" he muttered to himself. He turned to leave, heading to the next ship thankful they were all Caldari and Gallente and not Minmatar.... they would require a whole new level of updating!

Just over a week ago I reported here that a Caldari militia corp, Immortal Legion, had moved into our home system of Nisuwa. We were excited about this. War targets on our front doorstep! We'd heard that they were epic station campers and played station games, but that didn't bother us. We wouldn't need to roam for targets, they would be here with us in system! Fantastic!

However we should have seen how this would end after our first proper engagement with them the night after they moved. The fight was rather one sided - LINKY - and it didn't go well for Immortal Legion. After that we didn't really see much of them in Nisuwa. We did encounter them around the warzone, but generally they kept themselves away from the station and gates in Nisuwa.

It was a massive disappointment. You know one of those things that you think is going to epic and then just fizzles out and dies. Well this was one of them. They've buggered off!

It was during this week we captured Nisuwa for the Gallente Federation. For those of you not familiar with the delights of faction war plexing....

Each system in the low-sec war zones has a sovereignty and occupation status, just look at the system info in the top left of the screen. In these systems complexes randomly spawn like exploration sites. You can scan them down with your ships on board scanner. If your militia has occupation in the system then the rats that spawn in the plex will be friendly. Inside the plex there will also be a structure named after the class of plex. It might be a Caldari Major Facility for example. If you orbit it at close range the timer shown on it will count up. After about 20 minutes, or something... I'm not sure as I don't really plex, the plex will close and you've made that plex safe and it despawns. If the enemy militia occupies the system then the rats inside it will shoot at you. Again you orbit the structure but this time the timer ticks down. When it hits zero you capture that plex. You need to capture something like 21 more plexs than the occupying militia makes safe or something along those lines. If you do that the system becomes vulnerable. In this state the control bunker can be shot. It's like a mini POS bash. Damage the control bunker enough and you'll take the system and the occupancy will switch after downtime. Therefore Nisuwa went through the following stages over a period of a few months:-

This takes a lot of effort, a lot of time and a lot of patience. One of the big gripes with FW mechanics currently is that it also means nothing. All you get is bragging rights over the otherside. However, a certain Caldari Militia pilot loves plexing so much its an incentive to some people in the Gallente Militia to plex just make him mad!?!?

However with Immortal Legion moving in we thought that it would be difficult for us to take Nisuwa. We expected them to capture plexs to stop us capturing the system, we expected them to harrass our pilots capturing the plex. We were wrong again. They pretty much left us alone in Nisuwa after the first fight!

The last we saw of Immortal Legion was this carrier the other night (LINKY) and then yesterday their POS was mostly taken down all except for the large Amarr tower. Well it would be rude to ignore it wouldn't it (LINKY)

So they came, they saw, they fought, they GTFO!

How we have a free moon in Nisuwa as well as plenty of spare space in the State Potectorate Station. If you are a Caldari Militia Corp looking for a change of scene and would like a system where there is plenty of PvP guaranteed, you could do a lot worse than look at Nisuwa. Two jumps for the PvP hotspot of Tama, three jumps to another major Gallente Militia staging area of Heyd, three jumps from Caldari hi-sec, five(ish) to Jita, a station with ship repair and medical (cloning) facilities and home to SoTF who always like a gf!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

(If you're bored with me emo-raging about Faction War fixes and just want to know about the epic fight in Tama, just scroll down past the "rage" picture)

Last night I got kicked off the laptop so the wife could speak to her parents back in the UK. Selfish moo!

Anyway, I watched a Family Guy DVD until she'd finished and I got my laptop back. By that time it was late (I'm Eve Time +4) and I decided there was no point logging into Eve. So I checked my emails and looked on Twitter. That's when I saw a Tweet to the effect of "CCP fleet reported heading to Tama".

Wow! That's the 2nd system over from our homebase, Nisuwa-Kedama-Tama! And double wow! I thought CCP had completely forgotten about this area of space as it is the Faction War zone. Sorry, I'm trying to hide my fustration with lack of Faction War fixes but I'm struggling. Crucible is looking to be a fantastic expansion and I'm really pleased with the fixes and improvements. But I really want Faction War fixing.

I was in bad mood already with Eve last night. This post here details the topics for the December CCP/CSM summit. I scanned the list quickly and was hugely dissapointed not to see a Faction War session. Hilmar's open letter last month said there were two things that needed fixing - Faction War and 0.0. And at the following CSM/CCP summit FW wasn't going to be discussed??? WTF? Queue nerd-rage! I then re-read the list properly to see what was more important than my beloved Faction War. Then I spotted it, it was there..... in the "Little Things" session. Little Things? LITTLE THINGS??????

Oh I was mad! I posted on the discussion forum that FW should not be in little things as it does need a decent amount of work on it. A CSM delegate replied that it needed significant resources and until CCP committed those resources they would try and use "little things" to improve FW. OK, better than being completely ignored but still, I wasn't a happy bunny!

Anyway with me in that mood I decided it was only fitting that I log on, jump in a ship and Leeroy into the CCP fleet screaming "Fix Faction War!". I'm already in a Hawk Assault Frigate when I log in so I undock in that and head to Tama. As I jump into Tama I'm shocked. Lag! The gate is a massive battle zone. I've not seen Tama like that since the mothership battle a couple of years ago. I quickly turn off brackets and the lag monster retreats. Now I can see whats going on. A fleet of CCP'rs in Navy Issue and Faction battleships with lo

gisitics. There are Machs, Bal's, Raven NI, Apoc NI, a Vindicator and many, many more. There are also lots of neuterals, a few Caldari militia, a few friendlies from the Gallente Militia and the odd pie. All CCP ships are -10 red so open targets. I start to engage in my little Hawk. It's a free for all.

I'm posting FW references in local which I assume CCP see. Why do I assume that? Because the bar-stewards start yellow boxing me. However they don't get a chance to shoot me as due to my tired and emotional state (mmmmmmm Absolute Mandrin and Sprite!) plus the 200+ ships on grid, I didn't notice the squid Sabre that got too close. POP!

I warp my pod out, race back to Nisuwa and grab a cheaper ship. A Thrasher class destroyer.

So back in and in my tired and emotional state, more local chat about Faction War. This time the CCP fleet did have time to lock me and CCP Awesom, Hermaur, Guard and TomB turn my Thrasher into scrap but not before I fire a volley or two to tag onto any kills. Yes, I was being a KM wh0r3! It would appear that CCP are reading local and primarying people spouting off. To be fair you cannot blame them :) I've got corp mates in the middle of the fray who haven't been targetted but then again are not mouthing off in local (I'd also point out that they are sober!). So I head back to Nisuwa and jump in a Crow class interceptor. Ha-Ha! Try shooting that in your big old battleships.

Third time jumping into Tama. I warp out immediatly to an on-grid pounce and survey the battlefield. It's a cluster-F. Apparently the CCP ships have PLEX and NeX store clothing in their holds. So people are fighting over loot and trying to get close. I then notice CCP Hagis is well off gate in a Vindicator. I see explosions all around them so I assume they are under attack. I burn over and lock them up, they are in mid-armour so I get in a fast orbit and spam some missiles. They go down and I'm three and a half billion ISK up in efficiency. Nice :) I burn back to the fight but I get caught by a squid Sabre, again!

OK back to Nisuwa for a forth ship. This time I'm going for a Hurricane and not going to mention FW in local. I'm going for the squids this time! I jump in and hold cloak. I see a squid Thrasher 20km from me so I uncloak and alpha him. Next I see a squid Dram and take a shot but he's moving too fast. Even though I hadn't said anything in local this time, several CCP'rs start shooting at me. I burn away MWD on trying to make range. I see I'm not pointed so try to warp off.

You know those times when you hit warp and for some reason your ship takes an ice-age to actually warp? Well this was one of those times. When I selected warp I was sure I'd get out OK. I still had half shield and I was away from the main fight. I was aligned but not in warp.... still not in warp..... quarter shield...... I'm pointing in the right direction, my velocity shows I'm trying to warp, why am I not warping? 3/4 armour...... erm warp? Half armour.... WARP YOU MINMATAR BUCKET OF BOLTS! Finally at 1/4 armour after what felt like an eternity I'm in the warp tunnel.

However the "fun" is not over. I land at a planet and there are already a lot of people there. But I'm 100km off. I selected the Kedama gate and hit warp. A dramiel that was at 100km is now 80km..... 60km..... 40km...... luckily this time I warp off within a resonable time. It's late, that bottle of Absolute Mandarin is low and I'm low armour. I land on the gate, make a final post in local about faction war and then jump into Kedama. Thankfully the squid the otherside runs and I have a free run back to Nisuwa. I repair my cane (1.5m!) and log off happy. I lost three ships including two T2's, but I got onto two CCP kills (I got onto CCP Nightmari's Apoc NI) and killed two squids including that damn Sabre :) However, that was a scary fleet CCP brought to Tama.

Final tally for me was three ships and about 50m ISK lost but four kills and 5bn ISK killed. The other Shadows of the Federation members killing CCP help push our all time ISK destroyed to three trillion ISK! Not bad for a bunch of faction war noobs!

The battle was still raging as I logged and looking at the report this morning as I type this I see PL dropped Titans and Supercarriers in Tama after I logged. CCP Spitfirer's Apoc Navy Issue died to a hail of Titan and SC as an example!

Friday, November 18, 2011

I'm back in the Middle East! After a two week holiday in the UK to see friends, family and things you see in the UK I'm back to the desert.

I had read on the corp forums that the Caldari Militia corporation, Immortal Legion, had moved to our home system of Nisuwa. We've got no problem with that, in fact quite the opposite. Now we don't have to roam to find targets, we get home delivery! Just like calling 0800-BRINGSQUID. However there was a warning, Immortal Legion are infamous station campers apparently, and love nothing better than sitting on a station undock.

Interesting. Anyway I read that at T5 Heathrow, powered the phone off and boarded the plane. Fast forward more than a few hours and we're home, it's late and I'm tired. Now I really should go to bed but may be I'll just say hi to the guys, I've had grief for two weeks about not having a mic to be on voice comms properly so I'll just say hello.

Connected!

"Everyone in armour BS NOW!"

eh?

"Whats the deal?"

"Our new neighbors are camping station with 5 carriers, logistics and faction battleships"

Now there is NO way I can log now. I have a flick through my hanger and see I have a Abaddon ready to roll. I insure it quick and I jump in fleet. Great timing as 30 seconds later one of our guys undocks and they aggress.

"UNDOCK! UNDOCK! EVERYONE!"

As I undock I see the carriers, a few Ravens (Navy Issue) plus Drakes and assorted other crap including a Basilisk.

Primaries are called and even with the reps we start ploughing through their ranks. ECM is helping us break the carrier reps and our BS and laying down the hurt. I cannot use lasers, I never trained them past T1 smalls. So my Abaddon has a full rack of T2 1400's. I'm like Charlie Fodder. DING............. DONG!

One of the squid carriers "accidentally" drifts off station thanks to some good bumps and after we've taken care of all the sub-caps we turn our attention to the carrier off station. The other Caldari Militia carriers keep trying to rep him up but are forced to dock/undock thanks to our efforts in attacking them too. They don't manage to save him and he has named capital mods fitted. Sweet!

The KB is a bit messed up as it includes some fighting after. Just after we kicked their arses a squid fleet instantly formed up in Enaluri (assume a call for back up went out) and headed directly over to us. In the confusion of forming up we lost the Lach. In the initial station engagement we didn't lose a ship (we have our own carriers you know!).

A good fight and I was so lucky to log on at the right time!

Looking forward to the next time these guys want to borrow a cup of sugar!

Monday, November 14, 2011

"With the Winter expansion possibly being named 'Crucible', it certainly is a melting pot of refinements and tweaks aimed at making the EVE experience smoother and more wholesome. If the developers suddenly found themselves some spare resources and approached you for an additional feature to include before release, what single concept would you pitch them and how would you implement it?

For bonus points, the one thing lacking from this "patchwork" of iterations is a cohesive storyline to package "The Crucible" together. How could this expansion be marketed to potential new customers?"

Nice one Stan, I'll do this one is the style of a fake Dev Blog as we've been getting so many lately.....

Hi I'm CCP FakeDevBlogger and I'm here to tell you some of the exciting things coming up in the Winter Expansion for all you faction war fans (all 21,000 of you!)

In our CEO's open letter to the community we admitted faction war needed fixing. We've listened to you, we've had a good look into what faction war is, where it is and where it's going and we hope these changes will encourage more of you to blow each other up with extreme prejudice!

NPC Navy are not going ANYWHERE!
Despite rumours to the contrary we are not removing the NPC Navy from High Security Space. To do so would lead to boring camping of each Empires trade hub and spread out the warzone over to large an area. We want to encourage people into their low-sec war zones, not out of it.
We have slightly nerfed the NPC Navy in 0.7 to 1.0 systems but you still need to take these guys into account when you go kicking up a stink in the enemies back yard!

Complex Spawning is Now 23.5/7
Rather than all faction war plexes spawning immediately after down time and thus giving a massive advantage to those who are online at that time, plexes now spawn randomly throughout the day.

Plexing Means Something!
Rather than the old bragging rights and saying "na-na-nanana we captured your system" capturing systems now means somethings. Capture a system and you'll find a yummy range of bonuses to reward you for your hard work.

Command Bunkers now gives minor buffs similar to a Command Ship. Whilst nowhere as good as a decent pilot in a command ship, these buffs will help those who control the system.

Reduced fees in conquered systems for repairs, insurance and medical clones. Well your chosen Empire would want to reward you wouldn't they.

Now there is a chance that a Navy Officer will spawn in a Plex towards the end if it is being captured. These have a chance of dropping Navy modules.

Cash for Faction War
We've done away with loyalty points for enemy PvP kills, now you are rewarded with cool hard cash! You'll get 75% of the basic insurance for the hull you kill with a x2 multiplier for T2 ships. Now FW isn't such an ISK sink whilst still ensuring that it is not worthwhile to kill your own alts in the enemy militia for profit.
Also we're adding bounties to FW navy rats. If you are of the opposing faction then the NPC Navy will have a corresponding bounty as per normal rats. If you are not in the opposing militia, you get nothing as per now.

FW Missions Nerfed
Yes, your average FW missioner is an alt who runs missions in a cloaky bomber all day. A large reduction in LP's for missions will now make that less rewarding. Faction War is about PvP, not about skulking around in a cloaky bomber avoiding the fight. Man up and go shoot someone!

We're Waking up the Story
Yes, the storyline we were running has gone very quiet with Tibus Heth et al. However we're dragging CCP Tony_G kicking and screaming from his DUST duties to continue the story again. To be honest he didn't kick or scream THAT much. The story will continue but we'll be paying close attention to whats happening in-game to ensure it all ties up nicely. Expect more from Tibus, the Broker and all the other players that have been household names since the Empyrean Age!

No More Faction Standings Hit for Repping a GCC/-5 Miltiia Mate
To be honest this has been a long time coming. We've finally sorted the issue where you'd take a faction standings hit for remote repairing (or offering any remote assistance to) a GCC or -5.0 security status militia mate.

So there you are, tell your friends, tell Eelis Kiy and everyone else who has dropped their account in the last year as faction war has been neglected. This expansion is going to be a massive tick list of all those things players have been asking for over the last few years. This is a expansion by the players, for the players old and hopefully new.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Still on holiday in the UK so not being doing too much in Eve. Been going to parties and meeting up with friends rather than going on the corp roams (trust me I'd rather be roaming on some of these nights out). But when its wife vs CEO, wife wins on holiday!

But I have been able to keep abreast of the dev blogs.

CCP are revealing a lot of goodness for the winter expansion. Lots of new T2 mods, new tier 3 battlecruisers, new nebula and space backdrops, scalable UI, fuel pellets for POS', super capital nerf, dram nerf, hybrid balancing including buffing blaster boats, improved shadows, T2 ammo buff, time dilation, engine trails, cyno effect remodel, removal of insurance if you're CONCORDED, DPS on fitting window, reduction of session change, implants showing on pod kills..... Wow, never listed it out and there is a lot of stuff coming out and I bet I've not got it all in the above plus there is still more to come.

CCP wanted to appease the players with concentrating on Flying in Space (aka FiS) and they are doing a great job so far. Most of the player base are eagerly awaiting the new expansion.

However, I have a worry. Himlar's open letter (http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=2672) had a line that put a smile on the face of our corp which was pretty much like the one I had last week on a night out with an old mate, for reasons I cannot post on here (giggity).

"Factional warfare needs to be fixed"

I very much doubt that anyone who plays Eve Online primary for faction war will disagree there. I'll not go into the background, read back on this blog and you can read plenty on whats wrong with faction war and what needs fixing. Hell, a quick scan of the forums and you can see a lot of issues being raised and some good ways of solving them.

But so far we've heard nothing on the faction war fix/iteration. Is it coming? Has it been side lined?

Yes there are "only" 22,000 customers who are part of faction war (just checked numbers). That doesn't sound a lot given Eve's 300,000 subscribers, but how many alts are there in Eve? Of my 8 characters Drackarn is the only one I really play. The others are utility characters. I would think if you looked at active players that's a decent percentage that would be happy if FW was fixed.

So come on CCP, yes I know you are trying to implement the things that will make the most people happy, but you need to give faction war a little bit of loving! Pleeeeeeeeeeeasssssssseeeeeeeee..............

P.S. Back in the Middle East on Thursday so more blogging about PvP and less whining about FW fixes ;)

Thursday, November 3, 2011

I've said before that whilst in-game I am a PvP oriented pirate/Militia fighter, I'd love to see Incarna deployed properly. As of now, all we have is a pretty, but rather inefficient, irritating, three-dimensional station menu.

WiS must be seperate to FiS. I want both, just not at the same time. If there is battle raging in our home system and I lose a ship, I want to dock up, get in another ship and get back out to the fight! However, I might have just been out on a solo roam and found it to be very quiet, there is an hour to the scheduled corp op, I might want to stretch my legs as nothing else is happening. I've said before on this blog many times "Don't force us to do something, give us a reason to do it".

CCP ARE listening. Some of the recent Dev Blogs of the changes coming soon (TM) say they will address the more pressing concerns over FiS and existing bugs and issues. We've got the new teir 3 BC's to look forward to, fixes in faction war (YAY!) and cap balancing. The new modules look intersting, T2 drone and warfare link mods, talk of new drones and hints at kamazazi dones (CCP Guard holding a grenade as he talks about new things coming out at the end of the recent art dept video).

Of course this is in response to player-rage and the fact now up to 99% of people posting on the forums say they never wanted Incarna in the first place. Well, to be fair most of us did. Remember the video of the capsuleer getting out of his pod at Fanfest 2008 (Was it 08 with the Ambulation video?) and the reception it recieved?

Years ago we were looking forward to Incarna. Then CCP took too long, cocked up the implimentation and took their eyes of the FiS part of the game which angered the players and now has led to cries of:-

"I never wanted Incara!"

"I never wanted Incara either and neither did my wife!"

"I never wanted Incarna and that was before Eve was even created!"

"Well I didn't want Incarna and that was before I was even born!"

"My grandfather never wanted Incara, he wrote so in his diary during WW1!" - and so on.

Sorry guys, the majority of people who spoke about it WANTED Incarna before the botched release. This goes way back. I have heard 2006 mentioned in other places. And those calling for it to be abandoned, if you think that's going to happen... send me any amount of ISK in game over 100,000,000 and I'll send you back triple!

It would be great to have Eve as a fully immersive sci-fi sim. Walking in stations and flying in space, with a choice of what you want to do! By the end of the year we were supposed to see Incarna "establishments". However these are on the back burner for now. Rixx over at the excellent Eveogander predicts spring 2012 will give us establishments and I think he's right. I think with the new 180 on Incarna and focus on FiS we mustn't forget that Incarna is still just around the corner. A few things I would really like to see (but not at the neglect of FiS):-

Bar's - When I first started thinking about the bar in the station I realised one won't be enough. It's not that we need four empire specific bars. It's the security status of the bar (both system and location on station) that will define the feel of the bar even before we start thinking race specifics. Now I'm not saying that we need 12 difference bars (I suggest three "security" types, plus we've got four stations), may be certain bars on certain stations....

Capsuleer Bars (High Sec) -

We all know that generally capsuleers don't generally mix with the unwashed masses. They have their own decks and facilities at the top of the stations alongside the corporate elite. I'd like to see upper-end bars. Posh wine-bar style. You can find agents (normal agents, nothing special) and corporate big-wigs in these. Ten Forward on the Enterprise is something similar along the lines that I'm thinking. Quiet, dignified and a bit stuffy, and to be perfectly honest, a bit boring! Then again there is always the chance to find an agent looking to give out a job "off the books" here. Slightly more dangerous and slightly more rewarding than a normal level 4, but much harder to get one.

Capsuleer Bars (Low and Null Sec) -

These bars are certainly not as boring as their high sec counterparts. With the lack of CONCORD and general reduced law enforcement, these bars have more options. There is still security in these higher-deck bars on the stations. But you can buy, and see, a lot more. The combat booster dealers are here, the gambling tables, the scantily-clad dancers, the loud music. A proper bar! Why would anyone want to visit one of those hi-sec boring ones? OK may be as a low-sec pirate I've got an ulterior motive for having the flesh flashed in these bars - to bring the noobs through that hi-sec gate into our domain :) Not quite Quark's in DS9, it's too shiny, but then again not the Cantina in Star Wars either. Somewhere in between?

Lower Deck Bars/0.0 Pirate station bars -

When a capsuleer goes down there, they make sure thier implant sockets are hidden. These are more low down and dirty. Like the bar seen in Serenity or even the cantina in the original Star Wars. The one in the station in the movie Star Runners (horrible B-Movie with fail CGI that's on a lot over here atm) is another one that feel's "Eve-ey". Then again I might be just saying that as it has dancers in stockings! We want them dark, poorly lit, sleazy and dangerous. The player sat at the table in the corner, dealing illegal combat boosters. The pirate or secretive agent giving out missions sat next to the Gallente poledancer who is grinding away for tips. A fight is going to break out any minute between that Amarrian and that Minmatar bruiser at the gambling table, he's just looking for an excuse to punch him in the face. HANG ON A SEC!!!! Isn't that Tarquin Smith sat in the corner???? I heard he only spawns twice a month and only gives out one epic mission before vanishing!

Medical Centre -

I don't want to have to walk down to the medical centre to update my clone, that should be left on the main menu. But what about when you get podded? How about you "respawn" in the medical centre. Visually I think a lot could be made of that. All the different clone bays lining the walls, a medical drone/AI hologram to greet you back to life, the "Machine that goes Ping!". Yes, it will slow down the process of being podded/reship/get back to the fight... but if we looked at this realistically (well as realistic as a game about pretend internet spaceships set 20,000 years into the future gets) this is more like what would happen. If you got podded you'd not be back out in space in 30 seconds would you? Would make fights on a fleets home station more interesting!

Ship Storage Hanger -

Now I'll admit I don't know how this would exactly work, but wouldn't it be fantastic to be able to see all your ships together. Some sort of massive wall like honeycomb with each of your ships hovering in it's bay. For someone like Drackarn who usually has about 20-30 ships in his hanger from carrier down to interceptors it could look amazing. However scale would be a problem. An interceptor next to a carrier? Either you'd only see a portion of the carrier or the 'ceptor would be the size of a pixel on screen. May be they are not along a wall but on the floor. Frigate and destroyer hulls in the foreground followed by Cruisers, Battlecrusiers, Battleships then Capitals at the back. An elevated platform lets you look down on your fleet in station.

Corporation Offices -

Two room corp offices. One "reception room" where anyone can walk in. This can be decorated with furniture and art as you see fit. The reception room is your corporations advertisement. Are you going to fill it with Amarrian works of art or bland but functional Caldari furniture? A seperate back room for Corp members. Screens showing important corp bullitens. Access to Corp management functions and the like.

Undock Viewpoint/Promenade - Wouldn't it be cool to be able to look out from the station into space. Is the station camped? Lets look at the window! May be this could be the location to access all the establishments ala Deep Space 9's promanade? I know having an internal environment looking out into the "live" external environment is not going to be easy. But it would be awesome wouldn't it!

Agent Offices -

For those who want to do their mission running, let them visit the agent at their office. You should also be able to collect missions as now without undocking to CQ but lets have the option of face-to-face. Again this element in more about immersion than function.

Militia Office -

As for function, I cannot think of much that would make these worthwhile. What I am thinking of is visuals and game immersion. A lot could be made of a race specific recruitment/command and control centre for each militia. NPC officers standing over holotables showing tactical maps of the warzone etc. Could the NPC's manning the stations be tied into how the war is going for their side. Do the Gallente officers look happy? Then SoTF are doing something right! Something along the lines of the bridge of Battlestar Gallactica?

NEX Store Boutique -

Actually forget this idea, it's a ******* terrible idea! ;)

So I took that idea and started to write bit of "in-game" fiction giving a view of how a short break between me solo roaming and joining up with a scheduled corp fleet might go in Incarna if they did it right... in my opinion of course! The short piece is told from my characters perspective but gives hints and clues to where it could be expanded in the future. Level 4 and a half agents with a unique LP store? I'll have some of that, where are they? The lower station decks? And I can only meet them face-to-face in a very shady deal styleeeee? Sounds risky! Sounds rewarding.......

Coming Soon(TM)......

P.S. Flying from the Middle East tonight back to the UK for a two week holiday. Eve and blogging activity are likely to be slightly reduced.

About Me

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